Through the Fire and Flames
Through the Fire and Flames, (also known as TTFAF for short), is a song written and recorded by English power metal band DragonForce, appearing as the first track (and single) on their third studio album, Inhuman Rampage (2006). It is widely considered to be the hardest Guitar Hero song in the series. There are two ways to play this song on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock; the lead guitarist (Herman Li's part, some of Sam Totman's part) which is harder and more popular, or rhythm guitarist (Sam Totman's part). In Guitar Hero Smash Hits, the song is available for full band play, with the bass replacing the rhythm guitar. Because of its inclusion in the game, DragonForce's sales greatly increased following its announcement in the game.Snider, Mike usatoday.com, 2008 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-02-14-guitar-hero-effect_N.htm The song is also considered by some to be DragonForce's most popular song to date. Walkthrough The intro is generally considered the hardest part of the song. The intro is all hammer-ons, but its speed results in many players failing at less than 5%. A common method for passing the intro to the song is Tapping, but many find it passable while sticking with one fretting and one strumming hand. Some common tapping methods include tapping blue and orange, or tapping yellow blue and orange. Another way is to hold green with any right hand finger, leave it there, and quickly hit the hammer ons in the second (RYBO) hand position. Either way all notes higher than green should be hit and released to green very quickly. Piano style players could try holding green with their pinky and their pointer finger above red. Their other hand could go above Yellow, Blue and Orange. They could then strum the first note with their foot. This is often considered to be the hardest song on the PS2 and Wii version of Guitar Hero III and competes for hardest song on the XBOX360 and PS3 versions with "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (downloadable content - Boss Battle Track Pack). It is almost always considered the hardest song to full combo in any Guitar Hero game, along with Bark At The Moon (GH1 Version Only), Jordan, Free Bird, Satch Boogie, TDWDTG, Sudden Death, Black Widow of La Porte and Fury of the Storm (another song by DragonForce). The song involves intensive strumming and fret work and contains the "Red Snake" (within the section of the song entitled So Far Away 3 in Practice Mode) which has been calculated at about 26.6 notes per second, with ludicrously rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs from red to orange, back to red, down to red, and back to green. Shortened up it would be RYRG around 6.5 times per second. It can be FC'ed by anchoring and releasing the red notes right after the YBO taps. However, this song was Full Combo'ed by Chris Chike long before The Devil Went Down to Georgia was by Danny, although this may be due to the fact that more time was devoted to TTFAF than TDWDTG. Walkthrough During the real song it is played on the clavichord. Simply hold down the green button and ignore it, focusing on the melody played on the red, yellow, blue and orange buttons and remember to release them to "pull off" to the green note. Many people prefer to tap this section. One trick is to put a rubber band around the green note for the intro. This is not considered "cheating" but more of a cheap trick used to progress more easily. In addition to a rubber band, they could also have another individual hold down the green button. Technically, the intro is actually full of pull-offs, since in the game and real electric guitar, the ability to pull off makes the green note automatically play and is what propels players through this intro. Had the first note been green, and then the second red, rather than the reverse, then the whole intro could be termed hammer-ons due to the notes approaching from left to right. This would also make the intro very slightly easier due to the ability to hammer on the first note then pull off to green. Appears In * Guitar Hero III (Bonus Tracks) * Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (Quebec City) A Full Combo On June 3rd, 2008, Chris Chike (Known as Iamchris4life) posted a video of his first full combo (FC) run of the song. It was the first recorded FC of the song. On October 1st, 2008. Baseballkid7 scored the third FC, which also was the last song he had to FC. JPrez44 has also managed to FC it, along with ggamerman. On July 15, 2009, Guitarherodude2008 also got an FC on this song. GuitarHeroPhenom, Danny Johnson, has now FCed this song 27 times (on record) and is now currently in 1st official place, and quite possibly the only person to have done so without "two-handed tapping", by only ever using one hand on the fret buttons. Danny made the Guinness record on February 26th, 2009, breaking Iamchris4life's 8-month streak of holding the title. Danny Frank (known as oddballzfrank), Danny Johnson, Jprez44, GuitarHeroAddict112, PrestonxPunk and GHX X are the only people recorded to have "full comboed" the song on Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. Trivia *Most people that try this song on any difficulty can't play the intro of the song. *Herman Li, the lead guitarist for DragonForce, failed the song on Hard with 2% completion and has stated that it is impossible. Since then a few players have FCed it and Danny Johnson has done so 27 times. **Furthermore, in a YouTube video titled "Can DragonForce play their own song on Expert?" Herman Li and Sam Totman attemped a Pro Face-Off playthrough of the song, as they both play the same instrument in real life. Not even 2 seconds in and the "PLUNK!"s and "WAIL!"s of missed notes are heard. Apparently, they can''not play their own song on expert. *The only legitimate FCs, proven to be real of this song to be put on YouTube (Identified by username) are by: iamchris4life, JPrez44, GuitarHeroPhenom, UKOGmonkey, Joedamillio, and ggamerman. *This is one of only three bonus songs that does not have to be purchased in order to be played. (Along with Kings and Queens and the Joe Perry Guitar Battle) *This is also the final encore song, which is playable in the end credits. When played in the credits, this song cannot be failed. There is also no star power or rock meter in the credits. This also happens in Kings & Queens in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Pull Me Under in ''Guitar Hero World Tour, 21st Century Schizoid Man in'' Guitar Hero 5, and American Pie in ''Band Hero. *On the 360 version of the game, if the song is completed on Expert, the player achieves the "Inhuman" achievement. This is a reference to the DragonForce's album Inhuman Rampage, in which the song is on. *When you start up this song on Expert on either the Wii or Playstation 2, the loading screen will always say "Good Luck." *This song was FCed on Expert difficulty before it was FCed on Hard. *This is the only song contained on the original disc that the "Now That's Impressive" Achievement can be obtained on. *In Expert and Hard, the note difference is 999 notes. This is possibly a reference of Studio 999, which is a reference of Neversoft. *This song has 32 different sections, more than any other song in the game. *This song is the only bonus song from Guitar Hero III to appear in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. *One of the most popular YouTube videos is of a (then) 9 year old kid named Ben Eberle playing TTFAF on Expert. He holds the world record for youngest person to get 5 stars on this song. *This song is mentioned in the final tutorial. When The God Of Rock and Lou are arguing with each other about a guitar battle, The God of Rock suggests going to Mt. Olympus for some "Expert DragonForce". *The song was originally supposed to be the final campaign song, but it was put as the end bonus song instead because of its extreme difficulty. Song Stats (Expert) Notes in Guitar Hero III: 3,722 Notes in Guitar Hero Smash Hits: 3,715 Star Power Paths: 25 Average NPS throughout the song: 8.34 (some section contain more than 30 NPS) Video References ---- Category:Guitar Hero III songs Category:Songs Category:Guitar Hero Smash Hits songs Category:Bonus Songs Category:Encores Category:8th Tier Category:Master track Category:Songs played on the Computer Category:Songs played on Microsoft Windows Category:Songs played on Macintosh Category:Guitar Hero Arcade songs Category:Songs by DragonForce Category:Songs with a Rhythm Guitar Category:Speed Metal songs Category:Insane songs on Guitar